The rocky start to the Vuelta a España for Trek Factory Racing continued Monday with the news that Fabian Cancellara, suffering from a stomach ailment the past few days, was forced to stop in the latter part of stage three, ending another Grand Tour for him a mere three days in.

While Cancellara struggled more than a half hour behind, his teammates were battling with the large peloton and arrived to the finish in the large bunch where Jasper Stuyven sprinted to 8th place.

“In the end, with the headwind we were able to wait to come to the front and Markel [Irizar] was there for a long time to put me in good position and I was well-placed in the last kilometer,” Stuyven explained about the sprint finish. “I was in Sagan’s wheel but then with 500 meters to go I got a little sandwiched and I had to brake quite hard and I lost it all there. When the actual sprint started I had to stay in my saddle and go as hard as I could.

"It’s not a bad result, but I felt I had the legs to do better."

Fabian Cancellara suffered his way through the first road stage at the Vuelta a España Sunday, and pale and weak he bravely opted to start stage three, but with 37 kilometers remaining, and already struggling more than 30 minutes behind the peloton and out of the time limit, his illness won the battle.

Cancellara climbed off the bike and into the team car, forced out of his second straight Grand Tour only three days in. It is his third major setback this year after breaking two vertebrae on two separate occasions, the first eliminating him from his season’s biggest targets, the cobblestone Classics.

“It was probably one of my hardest days on the bikes today,” said Cancellara. “I wanted to keep going, I did not want to stop, but Josu (Larrazabal, director) told me to stop because I was already out of the time limit and it didn't make sense to continue." 

Cancellara’s roller coaster season appeared to be on a climb back to the top as he lined up at this year’s Vuelta, but the stomach flu refused to comply, plunging Spartacus down the tracks again, as if two injuries and earlier illness were not enough.

“After a year like I had so far I didn’t want to stop," Cancellara continued. "It was like when I was in the Tour [de France], I was alone on the road, and I had so many flashbacks from the whole entire year and it was why I kept on pushing. But in the end it’s your health that counts the most and if you are not 100% you feel it. I don’t know how many percent I had, but I was completely empty.

“It’s sad to abandon the Vuelta, a pretty big disappointment. It can always get worse, for sure, but I did not expect this, having this again.”

Fabian Cancellara recovered quite fast from his last injury and he trained and worked really hard to get back in shape to be able to take the start at the Vuelta. “The bad thing of training so hard is that you become very vulnerable for viruses and infections. And that is exactly what happened to Fabian,” explained Luca Guercilena, general manager of Trek Factory Racing.

Trek Factory Racing’s doctor, Dr. Ortwin Schaeffer, gave further explanation: “Fabian got caught by a gastrointestinal infection, a virus. He lost a lot of water and electrolytes and yesterday he also had a fever. He lost two kilos during yesterday’s stage and since he couldn’t eat, he could not fill up his reserves. With this heat and this extreme effort, it was just impossible to continue in such a condition.”

“Fabian is returning to Switzerland on Tuesday where he will have a complete health checkup and after that we will decide what will be the best plan and race calendar to pursue the work that was already done before the Vuelta,” concluded Guercilena.

There are not many stages for the sprinters in the Vuelta a España and Monday’s 158.4-kilometer third stage offered an opportunity, albeit one with a few tough climbs to scale before a flatter 50-kilometer run-in.  

The mid-way category one climb proved too much for the team’s designated sprinter Danny van Poppel and the green light was given to the fast legs of Jasper Stuyven – fourth on three occasions in last year’s Vuelta – to give it a go against some of the best in the business.

“The first climb was hard, and I was on the back, suffering, but I knew from last year and other races that most of the times I come around. The long climb I knew from training in the winter in this area, and I knew if I could be in good position and stay in the front I could get over it. That was not so hard, but after it, the downhill and the little kickers, that was really hard," he said.

“There will be other days, but there are not a lot of other chances for the sprint, but also there will be some possibility for me maybe from the breakaway. I think for me with the headwind at the end today it’s not hard enough, and I prefer a harder finale.”